We live
in an Age of Legend.
After centuries of hiding beneath the earth, humanity has ventured out
into the sunlight to reclaim the world. Trolls, dwarfs, elves, orks, and
humans live side by side with exotic races: the lizard-like t’skrang,
the small, winged windlings, and the earthen obsidimen. Creatures both
magical and mundane dwell once more in the forests and jungles. Arcane
energies offer power to those willing to learn the ways of magic. Once,
long ago, the land grew lush and green. Thriving forests sheltered plants
and animals, and people grew and prospered off the land’s bounty.
Then the Horrors came and drowned the world in darkness. The world’s
flow of magic rose, and at its height, dread creatures from the darkest
depths of astral space crossed into our world, leaving suffering and destruction
in their wake. The world’s inhabitants Named these fell creatures
the Horrors. They laid our world to waste in a terrible time now known
as the Scourge. The lush forests died. Bustling towns vanished. Beautiful
grasslands and majestic mountains became blasted, barren terrain, home
to the Horrors’twisted mockery of life.

The Horrors lusted
to destroy all life, but they did not succeed. Before their coming, the
magicians of the Theran Empire warned the world, and the people of the
Earth took shelter under it. They built fantastic underground cities called
kaers and citadels; their children and their children’s children
grew up within these earthen enclaves, never seeing the light of the sun.
For four hundred years the Horrors roamed the land, devouring all they
touched while the people hid in terror, until the slow ebb of the world’s
magic forced these loathsome creatures to retreat to the astral pit that
spawned them. The Horrors departed before the magicians and wise men had
believed they would; the wary people emerged slowly from their kaers,
facing the world half in hope that the Scourge had truly ended and half
in fear that the Horrors lingered. Though most of the Horrors had left
this world, many remained, inflicting cruel anguish and suffering on other
living creatures. As humanity struggles to remake the shattered world,
they must combat these remaining Horrors who seek to prolong the destruction
and despair of the Scourge. Now, heroes travel the land, rediscovering
its lost legends and exploring its changed face. For the world has changed,
almost beyond recognition. Many died during the Scourge; the Horrors breached
some kaers and citadels and destroyed their inhabitants. Other kaers remain
sealed, from unknowable disaster or simple fear; their contents await
discovery by bold explorers. Should they find any folk still living within,
these brave adventurers may lead such fear darkened souls out to live
again in the light. The dwarf kingdom of Throal lies at the center of
the province of Barsaive. The dwarfs seek to unite Barsaive’s far-flung
cities and people under one crown and one banner, the better to repel
the advances of the Theran Empire that ruled Barsaive before the Scourge.
The Theran's returned to the province shortly after the Scourge ended,
seeking to bend it again to their yoke, but the people of Barsaive rejected
the Theran's’ iron rule and rallied behind the dwarfs of Throal.
Even though they were beaten back, the Theran's remain the most powerful
empire in the world, and may yet strike again. As Barsaive’s heroes
search for lost treasures and battle fantastic creatures, they must also
fight those who plot to rob Barsaive of its newfound freedom and make
its people pawns of a new empire. In the Age of Legend, heroes band together
to fight the Horrors and reclaim the wounded world for those born in it.
As they explore the altered land, searching for legendary cities and treasures,
they become the legends that will light the coming days. As with those
who went before them, tales of their deeds will live forever in men’s
hearts. From many paths, the heroes come to join in common cause. Those
who seek honor and glory come from many Disciplines, and battle evil to
redeem the world with a multitude of gifts. A band of heroes may include
an Illusionist, a spellcaster who combines deception and reality to confuse
those around him; a Swordmaster, one trained in the art of fighting with
bladed weapons; or a Beastmaster, able to train and command the beasts
of the earth and sky. The world holds countless heroes, but all share
one trait: a willingness to fight to reclaim the world from that which
threatens it. Through noble deeds and sacrifice, the heroes of the world
will forge its future.